Outsider Art Archives - Page 5 of 8

Side-entrance-to-the-compound-St.-Eoms-Pasaquan-2016

November 22, 2016 Bill Swislow

Inside The Land of Pasaquan

Pasaquan, one of the world’s great art sites, lies tucked away in rural west central Georgia, near the little town of Buena Vista. Pasquan was the creation of Eddie Owens Martin, a local boy who went away to live the low life in New York City (by his own account), but came back and created a masterpiece. That Martin was a bit of a crackpot is hard to deny. A fortune-telling ex-street-hustler, he created a personal religion, enshrined himself as a saint and turned his family farm into a holy place. The strength of his vision is so great, though,

July 17, 2016 Bill Swislow

Reviews: Unpacking Dubuffet’s Legacy

From Art Brut to Art without Boundaries: A Century of Fascination through the Eyes of Hans Prinzhorn, Jean Dubuffet and Harald Szeemann, by Carine Fol. Skira, Milan, 192 pages, 80 color illustrations, 2015. ISBN: 978-8-8572-2748-1. Paperback, $45 Art Brut in America: The Incursion of Jean Dubuffet, by Valérie Rousseau with a foreword by Anne-Imelda Radice and contributions from Jean Dubuffet, Sarah Lombardi, Kent Minturn and Jill Shaw. American Folk Art Museum, New York, 248 pages, 142 illustrations, 2016. ISBN: 978-0-9121-6126-6. Paperback, $45 Jean Dubuffet – inventor of art brut, important painter, master collector and connoisseur, exploiter, radical, crank. For obvious reasons

May 9, 2016 Bill Swislow

Review: Ray Yoshida’s Museum Of Extraordinary Values

Ray Yoshida’s Museum Of Extraordinary Values by Karen Patterson My rating: 5 of 5 stars I’ve had the privilege of seeing Ray Yoshida’s art collection only twice, the first time in 1994 when I was co-curating a show of bottle-cap art for Chicago’s Intuit. Ray was gracious and loaned some pieces. His collection was spectacular, but tellingly, it did not seem out of the ordinary. If it was finer than many I had seen (my own included), it was not fundamentally different in style and approach. The mix of Maxwell Street flea-market finds with masterpieces is a hallmark of the

January 20, 2016 Bill Swislow

Review: Martín Ramírez: Framing His Life and Art

Martín Ramírez: Framing His Life and Art by Víctor M. Espinosa My rating: 5 of 5 stars Victor Espinosa’s long-awaited study of Martin Ramirez — for most of his life an unknown inmate of an obscure California asylum but now an art-world star — joins the 5 or 10 most important books yet published on the subject of self-taught and outsider art. (Read my full review). View all my reviews

December 27, 2015 Bill Swislow

Review: Martin Ramírez: Framing His Life and Art

Martin Ramírez: Framing His Life and Art, by Victor M. Espinosa. University of Texas Press, Austin, 388 pages, 24 color photos and 54 b/w, 2015. ISBN 978-1-4773-0775-5. Hard cover, $40 Victor Espinosa’s long-awaited study of Martin Ramirez — for most of his life an unknown inmate of an obscure California asylum but now an art-world star — joins the 5 or 10 most important books yet published on the subject of self-taught and outsider art. It is the definitive treatment of a universally acknowledged self-taught master and is likely to remain definitive given the rigor of Victor Espinosa’s research. It

December 27, 2015 Bill Swislow

Book Review: Envisioning Howard Finster

Envisioning Howard Finster: The Religion and Art of a Stranger from Another World, by Norman J. Girardot, University of California Press, 304 pages, 16 color plates and 20 b/w illustrations, 2015. ISBN 978-0520261105. Paperback, $29.95 The prolific southern visionary Howard Finster was something of an enigma. How much of his colorful output was a matter of vision vs. showmanship? How important are his paintings vs. his Paradise Garden environment? Crazy, or crazy like a fox? The flood of work (some 46,000 numbered pieces, nearly all with spiritual messages) and his loquacious sermonizing raise another key question: Are we obligated to

September 30, 2015 Bill Swislow

Tour the Lakefront Stone Carvings: Oct. 11

Chicago is home to the greatest collection of outdoor stone carvings in urban America. Generations of beach-going carvers whiling away the hours left their marks on huge limestone blocks installed during the Depression to improve and protect the city’s park-lined lakefront. Many of these anonymous carvings have been destroyed as part of more recent anti-erosion projects. But the stretch of shoreline between Bryn Mawr and Montrose Avenues still boasts dozens of these small wonders — animals, bathing beauties, presidents, deities, buildings and, of course, initials, names and eternal professions of love. It’s the best public art that no one sees. They’re

September 30, 2015 Bill Swislow

RIP Ionel Talpazan, UFO Artist

It was sad to hear of the death of Ionel Talpazan, the fabulous Romanian artist who created a world of UFOs in his paintings, drawings and sculpture. Read his New York Times obituary

Stanley Szwarc: Box, 1990s, 5.5x4.165x2.685

July 14, 2015 Bill Swislow

The Stanley Szwarc Boxes

Stanley Szwarc (1928-2011) was a prolific artist, and boxes were his most frequent creation. There are thousands of these floating around the Chicago area, ranging from tiny ones barely a couple of inches wide to bruisers that could take up the corner of a desk. In his basement were closets and trunks filled with layers of boxes stacked up and divided by sheets of cardboard. “No two alike,” he would always say. As with all his work, the ornamentation is brilliantly creative. Recently acquired early work Visit the Stanley Szwarc visionary cross gallery Visit the Stanley Szwarc portrait gallery View Stanley Szwarc’s vases Stanley

Stanley Szwarc stainless steel vase with strips

July 7, 2015 Bill Swislow

Stanley Szwarc’s Visionary Vases

Vases by Stanley Szwarc, master of stainless steel, who died in 2011. Stanley complained that his vases took too much effort to make, but he kept creating them nonetheless. They are among his most elegant works. Recently acquired early work Visit the Stanley Szwarc visionary cross gallery Visit the Stanley Szwarc portrait gallery The Stanley Szwarc boxes Stanley Szwarc in color 2016 show at Intuit in Chicago Read The Stanley Szwarc story